Ep. 116: Haunted Alabama: Ghost Stories Only Locals Know

Hey y'all, it's me Tara Strong, AKA Ms. Minutes for Bama Geeks. I hope you're ready to watch and if you don't, I will have to prune you. Stay on your sacred timeline. And hello, it is Sunday night. We are live. Yes, we are. Hi. We are so live. I, of course, am Brock Parker. That's my wife, Jessica. Hi. And as you can clearly see on the screen tonight, there is no Bo. There is no Kevin. Those guys decided, hey, it's October. It's our favorite month of the year. We're just going to leave you all to it. I don't know. They're probably out trick-or-treating early as far as we know. So is trick-or-treating at the beach. Is he? Yeah, could be. Yeah. Instead of, instead of candy bars, he's getting sand dollars, probably crabs at this time of night. But anyway, yeah, Bo and Kevin are not here. So we have a very special guest. One of my dearest, best, closest friends for the past, what, Or so? Sure. And he's known Bo and Kevin longer than that. My goodness. We're just all one big happy family. It's a very interesting story how they all connected. Yeah. Yeah. Mr. Michael Nix, who we affectionately call Nixie. Good night, sir. What? No, not in this day and age. Oh my. Not in this day and age, sir. Funny story. Both Bo and Kevin have been sacrificed tonight. That's where they are. They're not at the beach. They're in the dungeon under my house. Oh, great. We've got, what's his, uh, John Wayne Gacy. Is that the script? Is that why I hear screaming in the background? If you've been a regular viewer for the past, well, we've been on here for over four and a half years. Uh, Nixie has been a wonderful guest to have on in October. We, he's a, uh, He is a man of many talents when it comes to telling ghost stories, especially local Alabama ones or anything around the South. So we unfortunately did not do it last year. Time just kind of got away from us. But the two years prior to that, he was with us. And so we're like, hey, the old fuddy duddies are out tonight. You want to come on? I mean, yeah, of course. I'm the fuddy duddy. Kevin and Bo are actually very fun. I'm not a fuddy-duddy. I'm a fuddy-duddy. No. I don't marry fuddy-duddies. Well, considering you've only married me, I hope you're not trying to seek out other ones. I wouldn't marry a fuddy-duddy. How about that? There you go. Well, it's debatable. So anyway... Anyway, we welcome you tonight. We're going to talk. We're going to hear some wonderful ghost stories as we are kicking off October. Jessica is wearing her It's Tricky ghost shirt. It's tricky, tricky, tricky, tricky. She felt, where did you find that up? Maurice's. Yeah. Yeah. Eighties kids. You know what I'm talking about? Right. It's tricky. It's tricky, tricky, tricky run DMC. I am wearing an honor in honor of the Alabama theater. I'm wearing. alabama theater t-shirt because they are showing phantom of the opera what is october twenty-sixth yes that's sunday that we're not going to be able to attend we unfortunately cannot be in attendance this year we have other obligations that day so yeah my son's trying to be an actor so he's in a play that day so we're We're going to where he is located. Apologies to Gary and our friends at the Alabama Theater that we will not be in attendance for the yearly showing of Phantom of the Opera. Yeah, that's all right. That's okay. That's fine. We're making up for it for the Christmas season. Oh, yes, we are. The holiday film series is happening at the Alabama Theater, and we will have Gary back on. I'm hoping to talk about that. The December twenty-fifth showing of national lampoon's christmas vacation is completely sold out and we're part of the reason yep so uh well we bought eight no we bought four tickets to that eight tickets that entire day right because they're doing two shows that day yeah they're showing elf at two and christmas vacation at seven so yeah but anyway we're here to talk about ghost stories that's christmas that's christmas let's go make a halloween yeah everybody's a scrooge and all So anyway, before we get started, head over to BamaGeeks.com if you want to learn more about the podcast, see all the videos, listen to all the audio episodes. That's where you can find it. You can also find us on social media at BamaGeeks everywhere. And if you are on Facebook... which is a fun place to be these days. You can go to the Bama Geeks front porch. Just search that out on Facebook. Ask to join it. We will let you in and you can join our little inner circle of Facebook users. And of course, for our Patreon members, patreon.com slash Bama Geeks. Want to thank Jamie and Mike and Darnay and Jack. They are our longstanding, like four years, at least, our longstanding Patreon supporters. We appreciate you guys. We're very sorry that we did not give you a members episode this time around. And I'll send you guys a message about that. But all of our Patreon members, we didn't do it this time because Kevin and Bo weren't here. They decided to go on vacation. So, but what we do have tonight again is our buddy, Michael Nix, Nixie, the wonderful man that he is. What do you have for us tonight, my friend? You got some hints for us? A few hints. Hopefully not too many of these I have talked about before, but we'll see. Um, Alabama is full of ghost stories. Catherine Tucker Windham was an author that wrote several books, Thirteen Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey. There's a handful of those books out. I urge you to go to Amazon or go to your public library. Try to find these. These are fantastic, just folklore ghost stories around the state of Alabama. But the South itself is, uh is rich with great ghost stories so what better way to kick off october than just to hear some of them so uh are you ready sir sure another uh Shout out to another writer, one that I've worked with in the past, actually, in the media business, Dr. Alan Brown, who's wrote several Alabama and Southern-esque ghost story books that are out there as well. A few of them I like to go back and refer to. Uh, for instances like this, remember we're doing the ghost stories. Right. As I was saying, and you can go back and look, uh, and our YouTube channel and then in the past episodes for the ghost stories that we've covered in the previous, uh, previous years. Yeah. They're broken up into several clips and all, uh, and they're still to this day, consistently some of our, our biggest hits. So, uh, thank you, sir. Nixie for, for doing that. Right. Thanks. um if you are in the chat we are live tonight on twitch and x as well as youtube so if you want to join in the chat and share some of the ghost stories that maybe you've heard of or maybe some experiences that you've that you've had be sure to hop in the chat we will highlight those but uh take it away nixie I tell these stories because my mother, when I was in fourth grade, the only thing she could get me to read was ghost stories. And like many elementary school students like I, back over the years, knew who Katherine Tucker Windham was and Thirteen Alabama Ghosts and all the other books in the series that she read. Thirteen Mississippi Ghosts, Georgia Ghosts, Florida Ghosts, so forth and so on. Mm-hmm. And I've maintained that up to this day. I still like to read a good ghost story, whether they're true or not. Who knows? Who cares? I just like to read them. It's totally not to freak people out. But what better way of starting this off than talking about dead kids? Right. Sure. It's a good way to start. Kids who are unalived. That's right. So one really good story, and I can't remember, I'm sure this is in one of Tucker's books. I forget. It's not in Thirteen Alabama Ghosts. I think it might be in the Thirteen More Alabama Ghosts book. But it's the Dead Children's Playground, and that's what it's referred to. It's directly across the street. or at least neighboring, Maple Hill Cemetery, which is a gigantic, very old cemetery in Huntsville. And the stories have gone over the years after this playground was built that you would occasionally see swings moving around. You might hear children laughing and playing, and there being no children on the playground at the time. Where all these stories come from? It goes back to nineteen eighteen during the Spanish flu epidemic across the country. And many of the is said that many of the children in Huntsville who died from the Spanish flu are buried at Maple Hill on the side of the cemetery where this playground is. So, of course, the story goes children who, you know, of course, they never got to adulthood. They're still kids. They still want to play in their spirits and found their place at the playground just across the way from the cemetery. So orbs have been seen. There's a lot of spooky stuff there near the cemetery in that playground. It is constantly coming up in ghost stories of people who ever do the research. We believe they see things going on there. It's a hotbed for paranormal investigators, and it's investigated on a somewhat regular basis. Of course, whether any of this is true or not, you be the judge. I'll also say this too. Keep in mind some of these stories, because I know this came up during one of the stories I told a few years ago, that the location may actually be on private property. So please use a little common sense if you go out and try to find some of these places, because some of these places may be on private property. I don't believe this playground is, of course. There may be some other locations where they don't want you there necessarily. What was the one story you told about three years ago? Somewhere in East Alabama. I forget what the story specifically was. I think Crybaby Bridge is one of them. That may be it. There's somewhere else, but we still to this day get comments on that. If you go back and look at it, there's some don't come on my land. I think the owner saw it. or something, but we've gotten threatening comments of, don't you come over here. Right. Yes. So please be respectful of these properties if they are on private property. Yeah. That's our disclaimer. Yeah. So we're getting out of Alabama now and we're headed over to Mississippi. Hey, Mississippi. Yeah, this is about the only way I like to do it. Yeah. So Yazoo City is over in western Mississippi, west central Mississippi. It's about an hour or so north and west of Jackson. And this story is about an alleged witch who lived in Yazoo City. She apparently died in eighteen eighty four. And according to the legend, she was caught in quicksand. As it says there, while fleeing from the sheriff. And as she sank in the quicksand, she threatened to burn the city within twenty years. Very specific number. But coincidentally, the city burned. on may twenty-fifth nineteen oh four really destroyed more than two hundred residences and nearly every every business in yazoo city totaling of of about three hundred twenty-five uh buildings in total and yazoo city isn't exactly a really small town it wasn't in nineteen oh four at least uh so that took out most of the city but the uh marker there that you see is at the cemetery where she's buried at i believe there were uh There was wrought iron, like a gate, over her grave. There are many graves, some in the south, and there may be some in the north as well. I know in Europe, in some places, you'll see this too, where people were legitimately afraid of zombies, thinking people were going to come back from the dead, climb out of their grave, and wreak havoc across cities and towns. I think that might have been the case with this grave at one point. The right arm has been removed. The marker, as you see there on the screen, has actually been knocked over and broken. It's laying on the ground down. It's cracked. And that's actually a decent-sized granite marker. that was put up i believe by the guy uh ray rogers singer that you see there below i believe he may have had something to do with putting that up um but that is according to the local legend as you see on the stone uh that's the story she is apparently buried right there where that marker is as she is drowning in quicksand i remember that was such a terrifying thing in the eighties Right? There were so many television shows that depicted people getting stuck in quicksand and being overcome by it and never to be seen again. Our teams had us terrified. Yeah, that was much more of a threat on television and in our brains than we were really led to believe or led to experience. You don't hear much about quicksand anymore. You really don't. Did the Dukes of Hazzard have quicksand at one point? Didn't they? Um, I would not be the, I would not be the person to ask about that, but I know who, I know who would probably be able to tell you in a heartbeat. Yeah. And if they were in the chat right now, like they are most weeks, that'd be helpful. Paging, chasing Katie. um they may show up later if they do show up later and they let us know that they're here we'll uh we'll ask them but i i remember so many shows of people getting stuck in quicksand and people like you know throwing their belts out to them you know here hold on to this or whatever but and also yazoo city made famous by jerry clower yup Oh, yeah. Apparently, there is an episode that Daisy fell into quicksand. That's, yeah. Okay. I had to Google that because, I mean, I don't know the gist of it, but there you go. Yeah. Okay. Save Daisy. Always save Daisy. The reason this woman was considered a witch, though, part of the story around that is... Yazoo city being along the Yazoo river in Mississippi. She lived nearby and was known for luring, uh, fishermen to tease and torture at her home. So. All right. Oh, and yeah. Bo Bearden has joined the chat. Yeah. He couldn't be here tonight, you know, in here, but he looks, he's in the chat. There's Bo glad to see Nixon. His third act of ET cosplay. Hey, Beau. Hope you're having a good time finding the crabs tonight. Glad he found the Wi-Fi in the dungeon that he's supposedly going to have since he's not here and he's not at the beach. He's signaling for help. Excuse me a minute. I need to go downstairs. So was Jerry Clower from Yazoo or was he from Macomb, Mississippi? He was from Liberty, Mississippi. Liberty. Yeah. I was completely wrong on all that. I forget how he's connected to Yazoo City, but. He mentioned there was a song called Southern Air that he put out that I think they were, you know, it was an airline that they were part of. And I think they were flying over Yazoo City at some point in the song. I can't remember. I remember that. I remember the squirrel story he told and that he played for Mississippi state football for Mississippi state. Oh, I love Jerry Clower. He was great. Yeah. If you have, if you've never heard Jerry Clower, do yourself a favor and just go back and listen to some of his things. If you want to just a hilarious Southern comedian, Jerry Clower is it. All right. Next up, this does appear in a Thirteen Ghost book, Thirteen Tennessee Ghosts, and it's The Bell Witch. You may have heard of a movie, and what was it called? I can't remember now. I think it was The Bell Witch. Let me verify that. There is a Bell Witch movie. Yeah, that's it. The Bell Witch. So that's where this story derives from. And, uh, it is about this dog creature that was considered a witch. As you see in the illustration, uh, on the screen, it was two headed dog, um, that terrorized the Bell family in Robertson County, Tennessee, between. Eighteen, seventeen and about eighteen twenty-one. Um. So, yeah, the folks, the Bells lived in Robertson County, which this area was kind of frontier land at the time. It was very sparsely populated. But strange occurrences began happening on their farm when John Bell, the patriarch of the family, came across this dog-like creature, as you see here. The fire got at the animal, but it quickly vanished, and soon after the incident, strange disturbances inside the family zone began, with loud knocking noises, gnawing sounds, and the sound of chains dragging across the floors. Hmm. That's a yeah. This sounds eerily like what happened under our bedroom window last week. The dog barking and keeping us up until three in the morning. Did the dog have two heads? Could have. It sounded like it. Maybe that was just the echo off the neighbor's house, but yeah. Well, eventually the witch's activities became physical, unfortunately, and it began striking, pinching and pulling the hair of some of the family members. But however, it was John Bell and his daughter Betsy who received most of the abuse. The witch then began speaking and having full conversations with members of the family as well. Oftentimes it directed insults and threats at John Bell. And when asked about what or who the witch was, it responded, I am a spirit. I once was very happy, but I have been disturbed and made unhappy. Wow. Can relate. Yeah. And then John Bell's, after three years of nonstop attacks and harassment from this witch, John Bell's physical health started to decline and he became bedridden and eventually passed away in December of eighteen twenty. His family believed the Bell Witch had caused his death by giving him some kind of poison. It was even said that the witch had crashed his funeral and sang cheerful drinking songs during the ceremony. You'd only be so lucky that would happen at my funeral. After his death, the constant hauntings and abuse lessened and eventually stopped altogether just as mysteriously as they began. Hmm. Okay. I do see also that they do have a, you can visit this place also. Yeah. So this is a place that you can go visit up in Tennessee. Yeah. For tours and. Yeah, it is still very much in existence. Yeah. Hmm. The cabin that they lived in and what they have called the Bell Witch Cave up there. Yeah. Okay. How far is it? Do we know how far it is from here, from Birmingham? It is probably about an hour, hour and fifteen minutes, a little to the north and west of Nashville. It's on the Kentucky line. Okay. It's up near Clarksville, I believe. Okay. That's in the lower part of the state. Because we were in Chattanooga last weekend. Yeah. A little too far. Yeah. Now you've got to go back to the question there. Yeah. So that is the Bell Witch. And that is an illustration of Dean, who was an enslaved person who worked for the Robertsons, who came across the witch as well. Hmm. Alright. The Ellis Hotel in Atlanta. You don't often associate Atlanta with hauntings. It's normally the things that will take you from this earthly world. Fox theater. Of course, every theater, all theater is haunted, but the Ellis hotel has an interesting story. And it previously was the Weinkauf hotel, uh, which is best known for it burning down in December, seven, nineteen forty six and killed one hundred nineteen people, which remains, as you see there, the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history. And a lot of, um, codes have been changed over the period of time since then because of this fire specifically. Okay. But one of the more famous ghostly encounters is that of a young girl named Sarah who is said to play with toys and giggle in the hallways of the new hotel. So this isn't necessarily, the homings aren't suspected to be of things that happened in the Ellis Hotel as it is today, but spirits who remain from the Wyckoff Hotel, from when it burned, and of those one hundred nineteen people who died. Interesting. Fun place to visit in case you're in Atlanta and need a hotel, here's a recommendation for you. So this is a good recommendation for everybody who's missing out on the Dragon Con Hotel Hunger Games. Yeah, because I'm looking at this. I see that it looks like the Western right in the background of this picture. Hang on. Let me blow this up. I can see it. Yeah, it does. Yeah. They'll say there's the looks like there's a Western back there. So, yeah. I'm just saying, you know, you don't want to fight the Hunger Games. You can fight ghosts. It is a Marriott Hotel and it is at one seven six Peachtree Street Northwest in Georgia. Okay. I'm not even going to try to guess which Peachtree Street. I wonder if they'll host a ghostbusters gathering. How many Peachtree Streets could there be? Okay. All right. The Capitol Theater in Clearwater, Florida. With three ghostly acts still perform. So this theater was built in nineteen twenty one. And let's see, get through my notes here. So of the. Apparitions that have been noticed in this theater is a glimpse of the captain, as he's referred to, an old man with a goatee and a blue coat and fisherman's hat. A man named Bill, a man who was supposedly killed on the balcony by tourists. Tough crowd. And a young ten-year-old girl who playfully watches over the theater. Sorry to the Montgomery people. Alarms have gone off unexpectedly. Orbs have been captured on film. And if you look carefully, sometimes you'll catch the chandelier swinging. Oh, okay. So this place is still active. Still very much in business. It is referred to now as It's still good. You can find it if you look up Capitol Theater. You said it was it opened in nineteen twenty one. Yeah. Water, water, Florida. OK, so one hundred and four years old and just a little bit older than the Alabama theater. Yeah. So now known as the Nancy and David Billheimer Capitol Theater. It's been restored. But and it's still operated. Yeah. What do they show there? Six to six people. Let's see. What do they have? Movies or do they show performances? It's performances. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, they don't do movies there. I'm sure they probably do, but I'm sure it's mostly performances. Do they have a holiday film series? Well, let's see. Do they have a Wurlitzer organ? I see nothing about a Wurlitzer. Do they have a Gary? There's only one. Pretty sure they don't have a Gary. There's only one Gary. He's ours. They do have Mannheim Steamroller performing on the thirteenth at seven o'clock. That's right. Eastern time. Do they have Tito's? Yeah. Bo says, no Tito's. That's only on Gary. They're keeping this place pretty busy. But I don't see... Yeah, they're not doing the... any kind of holiday series. It doesn't look like. Oh, okay. I got to tell you about, we have seen so many advertisements for Tito's ever since we've come to know Gary, it's just all over the place. We heard it on the radio. What today or today or yesterday? It was yesterday. It was listening to the Alabama game as we were driving up to Huntsville. Very well targeted by some advertising. Yes. So shout out to Tito's. Thank you for sponsoring the Alabama theater, even though we have nothing to do with it, but you support our friend Gary and that's what matters. That's right. Back to Alabama and the Phantom steamboat, the Eliza battle. Yes. Ooh, this was a pretty tragic tale from, um, it was a very nice steamboat that went from, um, Mobile and in this case, it's, uh, it was headed to Columbus, Mississippi on the time. Big Bay river. I'm not sure how close to Tuscaloosa in those areas. It may have, uh, could have gone to, I don't know if it ever made it there. Cause it's still a fairly new boat when all this happened. Um, But it was a very cold March, I believe it was, when this boat left Mobile, headed to Columbus. Of course, back then, it'd take two or three days to get from Mobile to Columbus, even on the river, because you had to get around all the sandbars and the trees and so forth and so on. Oh, good Lord. He had to say it. It'll manifest at some point. Yeah. It's going to be the next ghost story is how... Yeah. Yeah. The whole Mellencamp paradox. Whatever you want to call it. Anyway, back to my story. But the boat was headed toward Columbus, and it was kind of rough weather. And it got to a certain point, I think, into either Washington County or Choctaw County in southwest Alabama. where the waters finally had calmed down, storms had passed, and it was fairly okay, but the boat was also a little overloaded too, if I'm not mistaken. I'll probably verify that as I say that, but I'm pretty sure it was just slightly. If it wasn't overloaded with people, it might've been with cotton bales. I think that might've been part of what became some of the problem as well. But... At some point, and this was overnight, the ship caught fire. The engine room caught fire. And there wasn't a lot they could do about it, about putting out the fire. And a lot of people started bailing off the boat and trying to swim to shore. Well, it was very cold. And some of these people didn't make it. Thirty-three people were killed in the middle of all this. And this was near, hopefully I'm pronouncing this right, Naheola in northern, I believe, Choctaw County. This is close to Marengo County. About thirty miles south of Demopolis, I believe is where all this happened at. Demopolis is where the Tom Bigby and the Black Warriors split. So they would have got to Demopolis and then headed to the west to Columbus. And people in Naheula could hear the commotion going on on the Tom Bigby a little way south, and many people from the community took off that way in the middle of the night to try to help as best they could. But thirty-three people wound up killed Um, story goes now that, uh, some nights in the middle of a storm, you will hear, um, steamboat paddleboat music being played, um, people talking, laughing, carrying on. And there have been some reports of folks seeing a burning paddleboat, uh, emerging out of the water, trying to continue its path to Columbus. Hmm. This is a Katherine Tucker Wyndham story. This is in Thirteen, Alabama, I guess. Okay. It is. I'd be interested to go over there at night and... Just kind of hang out? Yeah. See what you can see. Wouldn't be hard to hear or see. Naola, that area is very rural. Well, everything is hard for me to hear. I would just have to take somebody else's word for it, but I would agree with that fully. I will too. Look, I'm looking into hearing aids. Okay. I want to go here. Everybody talking and laughing. It's like I said, I can say stuff and he thinks he hears, I say something, but it would totally be something that I wouldn't say. So that's what makes it funny. wants to be able to play tennis and hear somebody talk to him or cook or play with the kids or go shopping. Take trips to the Grand Canyon all while wearing his miracle ear. I mean, I need a miracle ear, honestly. I'm trying to hold out till I'm fifty in order to get a hearing aid. Because my previous doctor told me I would need one by the time I'm fifty. So I'm trying to hold on to that number. He's got a point to make here. Vanity does not become you. My grandfather, that's where I get it. I get it very honestly. My grandfather couldn't hear. He needed hearing aids. My dad was hard of hearing. My grandfather refused to wear his hearing aid. And he was a very loud man. And he would take it out and the whole room would be talking and all of a sudden you just hear this big booming baritone voice and he would just start telling stories. And everybody in the room would just keep talking because there was no point in trying to get him to hush because he couldn't hear it when you told him to hush. So it's like, all right, Pawpaw. Just let him go. I have video of him with his hearing aids in during Christmas and being very slick trying to Turn it off and then looks over and starts grinning because he knows he's been caught. The problem with me getting hearing aids is I don't care what they look like or whatever. I have no shame in that. But there's so many sounds that I don't want to hear anymore. I don't like the sound of high heels walking on the floor. I don't like the sound of people chewing their food. Things of that nature. And I know if I get hearing aids and I start hearing those, I'm going to throw the hearing aids across the room. I want to hear just not that. I'm going to start wearing high heels when we go to lunch and smacking my food as I eat. That's on you. That's your preference. That's your preference. All to just make you even happier. I judge not. That is the last ghost story I've got. Formally, at least. What? What? You weren't already? That's all you brought tonight? Get back to toiling in the dungeon. That is all I've got. I do have my books prepared. I could just read. There we go. Now we're talking story time with Nixie. Story time with Nixie. There we go. All right. Well, thank you for the, thank you for the very hard work in preparing those slides. Your presentation was, was top notch as always. Thank you. Much, much better than some meetings I've been in over the course of these last twenty five years. I like all the meetings I have to go to now, but a previous employer. Don't make fun of me. Oh, so what stories do we have now? Uncle Nixie? Well, one, you might can tell us a little bit about it's the hole that will not stay filled. Oh, down around Newton, Alabama. Yes. Pritchard. No Newton. No Newton? Okay. Yeah, just Newton. Yeah, that's a story that scared the mess out of me growing up. I grew up near Newton. That's in Houston County, correct? Dale County. Dale County, okay. It's close to Dothan. Yeah. Newton... Yeah, the story goes, I'm trying to remember from childhood. The story goes that there was a guy who was being hanged. uh, from a tree there and like the rope was too long. So his feet were scraping the ground. So they dug out a hole beneath him. Uh, and so he, he died, he was hanged. Um, he died. And when they, after they took him down, they tried to refill the hole and then. they'd get up the neck or they would go back to the, to the place the next day and the hole was dug back out. And the, the, the legend is if you, even if you go, you fill up the hole, you lay down and sleep over that spot, uh, in a sleeping bag or whatever, uh, through the night, you will wake up the next morning, still in your sleeping bag, but you will be in the hole. Yep. Yep. I wish I would have thought about that when I was down that area not too long ago for work. Tried to go find that. I don't know if you'd have been able to find it. Well, they said that there's a bridge that was constructed over the site. There's some kind of monument, I think, that the family dedicated some type of a monument sometime down there. Yeah, we need to go down there and find that. That's close to my home area. Yeah. What road is that? It's a state road. I don't see if it's said. It says that the site of the hanging is beneath Alabama Highway. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. In Newton. and newton bye menon didn't um what was the one what was the thing you said your parents took you to handshake grave handshake grave yeah handshake grave and you fall uh uh There's a, the, the legend was, uh, there was a gentleman who, um, was homeless and was on the streets of Eufaula. And this is over in East Alabama, right on the Georgia line. Um, he, he would, uh, he would be downtown, but he was very friendly. Everybody knew him and. Uh, he would shake everybody's hand that came by and said hi to him. You know, he'd reach out and shake their hand. And, um, the, the story goes that when he, when he, when he died, the city, uh, the city paid for him to be buried and they put a wrought iron fence around his grave and all. But at the, after he was buried, there was a hole that, uh, developed at the foot of his grave, uh, I have been there. I have seen this. There is a hole. But if you stick your hand in the hole, it shakes your hand like his spirit will shake your hand. So it's called handshake grave. Did you experience that yourself? I did not. I did not stick my hand down in there. But, but, and this, I promise is the honest to God's truth. This happened. My mom and I went to go visit this grave and there was a beagle puppy from a neighboring house that saw us out there just looking at it. And this, this puppy got in between the wrought iron fence as mom and I were standing there, he got on the grave and. Immediately his rear end went on to the grave. He like, he sat down and just started yelping and barking and everything else. And finally stood back up and walked off the grave. I witnessed that with my own eyes. That was really weird. But, uh, yeah, I forget what road is on, but yeah, I can right now take you right to where that is. Even after all these decades. Hmm. So another place that's fairly synonymous is the old Bryce Hospital, which is now part of The University of Alabama campus. And the old antebellum white building that was the asylum for under fifty years, under forty years. There is, there's a building. Well, the old white building is a welcome center. And I haven't heard much in terms of people who work in there now because it's been renovated fully of having seen or heard anything there. But there is a historian. I don't know if he's in charge of Bryce Hospital in terms of whatever historical stuff that the university handles with their buildings. I'm not sure what. But he presented one time where in a museum area, Actually, yes, I think. I'll have to look in just a second. In terms of Fort Morgan. Anyway. Yeah, Bo's asking. Right now, he's currently near Fort Morgan, so he's asking if there's any ghost stories down that way. Yeah. Oh, okay. But they have cameras in this room that has picked up on some things, some weird things like orbs and just stuff being moved around and whatever. It's been... fairly active since it is being used again for something. I think part of the, I believe it's the third floor in that building, and not much of it's being used right now. But they do keep stuff up there. People go up there occasionally having to get this or that, and they come across different things that's going on up there. So that building still has very much some activity going on in it, apparently. Now, as for Fort Morgan... Most of the stuff like you hear from the old psychiatric hospitals and things of that nature, you know, carry those old sightings and encounters. A lot of people have come across when they've investigated those old buildings. So, I mean, that wouldn't surprise me one bit. Well, if there's anybody left in that administration building and the old Bryce Hospital building, their spirits are going to be very entertained once the Performing Arts Center gets finished. Okay. Yes, because they are building. They can put on their own performances now. That's right. They are building a new section to the back of the old main building that will be a performing arts center. So that, to me, is kind of funny. It makes sense. Turn an old mental hospital into a performing arts center. This better have some serious Phantom of the Opera stuff going on inside. That would be great. I would love it. If a chandelier doesn't fall, was it worth it? Somebody needs to make that happen in the very least. So Fort Morgan was erected in eighteen thirteen. And it was an anticipation of attacks by the British during the War of eighteen twelve. So it has been there that long. I didn't realize it was at all. So it was built. You said it was built in eighteen thirteen. Eighteen thirteen. Yeah. And they were anticipating something in eighteen twelve. For the War of XVIII, they were expecting the British to come through Mobile Bay, I'm sure. Oh, okay. They went on to New Orleans instead. Yeah. After XVIII, Fort Morgan was not fully garrisoned again until January third, eighteen sixty one, leading into the Civil War. We'll see. I have heard various things about Fort Morgan. I was trying to find something in this book that was a little more specific. I was close to there recently over the summer. Yeah. For a few days since the nineteen. Go ahead. I was just gonna say, I didn't hear anything outside of seagulls. Yeah. So one, one story is since the nineteen nineties, thousands of people have been sharing their ghostly encounters inside Fort Morgan over the internet. One of those tales was submitted by a man who said he was taking an afternoon stroll with his wife around the fort when he sensed that they were being followed. The couple looked over their shoulders and were surprised to see the emaciated figure of a man in a ragged Confederate uniform. Thinking that someone was playing a joke on them, the man turned around and waved at the soldier. Instead of waving back, the soldier walked over to the seawall and jumped off. after discussing what they had just witnessed, the couple retraced their steps, but were unable to find any footsteps other than their own in the sand. Hmm. Another contributor reported that his family heard some frightening noises inside Fort Morgan just before closing time. They had just walked down one of the halls and were entering one of the casements when they heard the sound of a large chain clanking across the floor as if it were being dragged. At the same time, several of the family members sensed an otherworldly presence inside the room. They conducted a thorough search of the room but found no sign of anything out of the ordinary. And then one sighting that has been confirmed by a number of people on the internet is that a Confederate soldier standing approximately six feet tall and walking through a wall. In one of these tales, a man took a family photo inside one of the rooms and was surprised to see the image of a man in a Confederate uniform. A man in a Confederate uniform. The soldier's appearance matched the description of the man who had been seen walking through the wall. Hmm. Yeah. Fort Morgan. So here was a soldier, not a captain. Right. We have rum with him. Captain Morgan. I'm sorry. Is he the reason the rum is all gone? Not Captain Sparrow, Captain Morgan. He made the rum. There should be plenty. You would hope. You would think. I'm sure around Fort Morgan these days, there's plenty. Yeah. With all the spring breakers. The Lyric Theater in Birmingham. Yes. It was very haunted and was very empty for a very long time. Yes. Then around two thousand nine, I believe, is Yeah, it's about two thousand nine, two thousand ten. They finally got the city was able to get money to start to start doing something. And then by twenty fourteen, they had seven and a half million raised to store the interior of the building. OK. Over the years, the Lyric Theater acquired a reputation of being haunted. Most of the paranormal activity reported there includes noises, voices, cold spots, and even full-body apparitions. Several paranormal investigations have been conducted at the Lyric. In two thousand nine, the Tuscaloosa Paranormal Research Group spent the night inside. The members noted several spikes in their EMF meters. uh but all of this evidence had rational explanations during the last hour of the investigation the group collected eight evps in the office room on the second floor in two thousand eleven another group spent a night walking through the office rooms dressing rooms and stage several members had some startling experiences inside the theater an unseen hand touched the shoulder of one member on the fourth floor Everyone in the group heard the disembodied footsteps of someone walking up and down the stairs from the first floor theater area to the first balcony. Their EMF meter registered several hits as well. Before leaving, the members played a CD of vaudeville music on the stage. The video recorders captured strange noises in the theater, clicks and bumps that were not audible when the CD was being played. Hmm. Okay. Well, you know, and then when they get tired of honing at the lyric, they just go across the street to the Alabama and hang out. That's right. They go over and play the Wurlitzer a little bit. I had a, I saw something and actually it did reference your Dr. Alan Brown, who had got a story from Cecil Whitmire, who used to be the organist there that Gary has even talked about in episodes with us. This said some of his counters at the Alabama says while rehearsing with a singer in nineteen eighty six, Mr. Whitmire reported that the singer watched a shadowy figure emerge from behind the edge of the curtain. just offstage and disappeared. He believes the spirit may be that of one of the former theater organists. The extravagant theater and its walking shadow still surprise and delight theater patrons and visitors today. And it did say that this also references a... An investigation that took place at the Alabama Theater in two thousand and six and one investigator as one investigator ascended to the stairs to the balcony, they encountered a force that pushed them down while investigating the film room. Shortly after that, two investigators heard something descending a staircase. So Mr. Whitmire believed that that ghost was a former organist and we're friends with the current house organist. So, I mean, I love the Alabama theater. I like to, you know, hang around in there. Be interesting. Yeah. Okay. Gary, can you show us where the ghost is around here? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. A story I don't know if you know of, Nixie, the Penn Young House over in Opelika. It's over at Spring Villa Park in Opelika. I used to live and work in Opelika. It's not open anymore, but there's this house on the property of Spring Villa, and it's called the Penn Young House. Um, we, they used to, Opelika used to do the, the parks and rec, uh, for the city used to do a, a haunted trail, uh, over there. And so when I was a reporter for one of the Columbus, Georgia television stations, they invited us to come out and actually spend the night in this house where, um, Henry or opinion, uh, let's see. Yeah, wherever he was, it was his house and he was killed in the house, supposedly. Just, I'll give you a quick rundown, looking at the city of Opelika's website for Spring Villa history. There's a little quick article submitted by the Southern Paranormal Researchers. The original house, the home was originally used by Penn and Mary Young. Uh, and that's Y O N G E. It was built by Horace King, a freed part of the freed part, African part Catawba. Indian slave who once belonged to John Godwin, Mary Godwin Young's father. Mr. King was one of the most famous bridge builders in the South. His fame led him to being contracted to build several famous buildings in Alabama, including the Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa in, as well as the current Alabama State Capitol building in . When Mr. Godwin died in eighteen fifty nine, Mr. King was given his freedom by the Godwin children, but he continued to look after them as his own children. Thus, his reason for building the house for Penn and Mary. As for Penn Young, his father, Arthur, came over from Great Britain, possibly Ireland around eighteen twelve. He moved first to the West Indies, then to Florida and And finally, to Georgia, where Penn was born. Penn's father died when he was twelve. He received no inheritance, so he had to make his own way in the world from that moment on. He wedded Miss Mary Ann Godwin of Girard, Alabama, the wedding being celebrated around eighteen forty six. Mr. Young was living at Girard at that time, being engaged in merchandising there. And in eighteen forty nine, he went to California, spending eighteen months in that state, during which time he traveled extensively over the gold fields and was reasonably successful in his search for the precious metal. He came back to Alabama in eighteen fifty one with the intention of going back to California, but instead wound up in Columbus, Georgia, which is right next to what is probably about forty five minutes from Opelika. the reason why, because there was valuable limestone in Russell County, which is where Phoenix city is. And I urge you, if you don't know the history of Phoenix city, Alabama, uh, specifically during the, read the history from the twenties to the fifties, uh, It's like the first city that's ever been under legit martial law since the Civil War because of all the gambling and mob activity that went on there. It's really a fascinating story. And if you can find... There's a book that was written by a lady out of Noonan, Georgia called The Trials and Triumphs of Phoenix City, Alabama. And there's also a movie that was made back in the fifties called The Phoenix City Stories, an old black and white movie. Highly encourage you if you love history and want to learn more about Phoenix City. That place was corrupt as could be. And I lived there for three years. And I'm not saying I had any ties to that time. I was not alive. You can't blame me. Yeah. But anyway, while Mr. Yong was over in around the Opelika area, he also, he owned what was known as Springville in Lee County near the Chihuahua Lime Works where he maintained his home. And this is, that's the house that we spent the night in. Anyway, this was known as the finest country home in that part of the South because of its proximity to the lakes. It's gorgeous there. Beautiful flowers, splendid flowers and splendid orchards. William Penn Chandler Young was a man of excellent financial ability and keen business insight. uh he spent much of his money in lavish entertainment at his country home and died in in limited financial circumstances the date of his death is not in question uh but the uh the circumstances are um he was let's see there's no official apparently this this group this other paranormal researchers cannot confirm or find any official records, uh, for the manner of, uh, uh, Yong's death. But legend said that a servant hid in a cubby hole, which is located on the stairway of spring Villa. I have, I know exactly, I know exactly where that cubby hole is because I have leaned against it. Uh, and it was on the, it's right next to the thirteenth step, uh, there's a little stairway that goes up in that area, and the cubbyhole is right next to a thirteenth step. And that is where he was supposedly unalived by means of sharp instruments. Various reports say that Mr. Young was a rather cruel hard boss, and that was a reason for his unaliving. Uh, some legends say that it was a, uh, indentured servant, which killed Mr. Young for various reasons, including the fame, the, his family being sold. Um, but yeah, so apparently if you stand on this thirteenth step, um, Let's see. Several legends around the thirteenth step of the staircase, all of which have to do with the man dying on that spot. Of the many accounts in the files, there seem to be more logical, even though none are supported by fact. Legend says he died on the thirteenth step. It is a fact that this step brought it away and until the stairway was repaired in about eight or nineteen fifty seven, a dark red stain was said to be his life giving fluids. Um, even today, visitors are told to carefully avoid stepping on that spot. I stood on it and I'm okay. I'm still here. This was, this was probably about years ago, but yeah, we spent the night in that house and. we were told to listen for different noises and during the night i was woken up i was sleeping upstairs uh on a cot along with some other people and something woke us up during the night And it turned out to be the Parks and Rec's people playing pranks on us. Of course. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. But anyway, I don't know if you can still get into the house or whatever, but it's a really cool old place. Very, very cool in Opelika. Okay. Springfella Park. And they stopped doing the Haunted Trail there years ago. Now, that was a lot of fun. A lot of fun. I love being a part of that. So anyway, there's my story. All right. I think I put Nixie to sleep. It was in the news not that long ago because it's closing, but the St. James Hotel in Selma has traditionally been a hotbed for haunted activity too. According to this, well, let's see. Here we go. Psychics have detected the presence of three spirits inside the hotel. A number of guests on the second floor have had their sleep interrupted by the incessant barking of a dog. Those dang dogs. When the night clerk searches the floors for the obnoxious canine, no dog is ever found. Some guests have also heard the clicking of a dog's nails as it runs down the halls at night. It is important to note that St. James has a no pits allowed policy. Yeah, so... But St. James Hotel was built in eighteen thirty seven, was a very highfalutin, if you will, hotel in Selma for a very long time. And of course, Selma has come upon hard times for quite a while now. But the hotel was either closed at one point and reopened or it was on the fringe of being closed and has managed to stay open. But recently, I believe it has closed again. At least again, I believe it is permanently closed at the moment. Yeah. It does say that it is permanently closed. It is listed as the St. James Hotel Selma Tapestry Collection by Hilton. Hmm. All right. But permanently closed. Yeah. I've never been to Selma. But very pretty, though. It's a very pretty hotel. A few times. And there's the ghost town of Cahaba that's west of Selma. A little bit too. And there are various stories about that as well. Yeah. One in Catherine Tucker's book and then there's various others from over the years. There's, you know, the street layout is basically still there, but there's hardly any buildings in Cahaba now. Drove by Selma on the way here. Very old town. Yeah. Wonder if any relation to the mid-nineties tag team. Which part? What do we miss? The youngs? I don't know. I can't, I missed that though. I was too busy reading. Um, now in Jasper, I've probably told this one before. There is a house that was a radio station. I can't confirm it. Oh, Godwin. The Godwins. Okay. Sorry. Gotcha. It is, it is neither a radio station now or an insurance office as it was after it was a radio station that I think has been sold and as a residence again, but it was a house, uh, near highway, seven, eight and Jasper that, uh, a man named George finds owned. He was a car dealer in Jasper. Um, and he died in the house. They had his funeral at the house. This was back in either the sixties or the seventies. And they still had the, um, the wakes. Wakes at home. And the house had a bay window. And one of the stories was after the house, I can't remember how long after he had died at the house, wound up becoming a radio station building. But the audio board for the radio station was in front of that bay window. So if the DJs were able to look out the bay windows, people drove by. It wasn't on Seventy-Eight. I forget what street that is. But it's about a block off of Highway Seventy-Eight. And there was a night where the sister of one of the DJs, uh, was working, drove by and the lights were on. So you could see everybody in the house or see the DJ in the house from the street. And she called up and said, Hey, I don't know. I thought you were by yourself. You know, somebody is there with you or who's out there with you. And they were like, nobody's with me. So we think it was the ghost of George. Um, also occasionally the toilet was flush on its own. gotta go you gotta go you still have to go apparently so but over the years it was a radio station for a long time for several years Okay. And over the last ten years, it had become an insurance office for a local insurance agent. And I drove by it not terribly long ago. And it had been up for sale and then went back by it a little more recently. And it looked like it had become a house again. But weirdly, George Vines was a car dealer, and my grandfather had bought cars from George two or three times. So they knew each other. Yeah. Uh, I don't think my grandfather knew he was haunting his old house, but. Oh, George. Yeah. Good old George. George is evidently still at the house. I haven't heard anything lately. Well, hopefully he's got a lot of relief by now. Maybe more annoyed that his house became a radio station. Oh, all right. Well, uh, you have anything else? Uh, any other stories you want to discuss? I don't think so. Most of these few stories I was telling after the presentation was from The Haunting of Alabama, which is written by Dr. Alan Brown. So that's one of the not Catherine Tucker Wyndham books that you can get some stuff out of. And a lot of his stuff consists of about three pages. They're mostly short, like the Fort Morgan story. It's about, well, it's about six or seven pages. But most of them aren't too terribly long. They're pretty short, sweet, and to the point. If you're looking for some short stories to just mull over, is that really true or not? That's a pretty good book. But between he and, of course, Captain Tucker, one of them in Alabama treasure, national treasure. Welcome back. We missed you on the last stream. Babuji says, who is this Nixie fella? Is he replacing Kevin? Kevin's in my dungeon downstairs. Somehow got access to the Wi-Fi. Oh, welcome back. Our friend, uh, no, Bo and Kevin are, uh, away from, uh, away from, uh, their, their respective cameras and microphones tonight. Uh, they, they heard I was going to be here and was like, pretty much it. Yeah. They're like, uh, him? No. Nixie's one of all of our dearest friends that we've known for many, many years. And he is a, a storyteller in the ghostly lore and tales, uh, has a awesome fascination with those. And we love hearing the stories. That's why he's been sharing tonight. He loves to come and spend Southern ghost tales with us. Yeah. Since it's October is it's time for ghost stories and all kinds of things. So we're like, Hey, come join us. And he's like, fine. We've got an extra, we've got a spare seat in the podcast tonight. That's right. So, but Alabama is, and the South, and I'm sure lots of other areas around the country are definitely full of great ghost stories and fun tales that we've heard all of our lives growing up. And so, like I said, being October, we just wanted to kind of bring them on and share some of those. Yeah. So, Nixie, we thank you for being on again tonight with us and sharing those. We appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Always. Always a pleasure, my man. So, Nixie and I are going to go to lunch tomorrow and discuss his performance and give him his annual review. So... A third in the dungeon, it looks like. Yep, yep. I'll be there. I'll be there after work. Well, we thank you so much for being on. And if you've enjoyed this, he's been on with us several times before. You can go back and look through the archives on YouTube. Just look up our clips of our old Alabama ghost stories. I think we have a playlist full of those. I believe we do. Yeah. I think you broke them down by stories too. So you can kind of go listen to one specific story if you want or check them all out. Absolutely. You can search for those on our YouTube channel. And if you want to know more about us, you just go to BamaGeeks.com. You can join us on social media everywhere at Bama Geeks. If you're on Facebook, you can find us in our private group, the Bama Geeks Front Porch. Just search for that, ask to join, and we'll let you in there. And, of course, again, thank you to our longstanding Four Years Plus Patreon members, Jamie and Mike, Darnay and Jack. We appreciate and love you guys for your support. And for all of you watching, we thank you for being with us and being on here. If you're listening to the audio version, you can check us out iTunes, Spotify, Apple podcast, Amazon music, wherever you can leave a five-star rating. We would certainly appreciate it. And of course, whether it's here on YouTube or whether it's on one of the audio platforms, hit subscribe, give us a follow. We would certainly appreciate it. That helps the show to grow. And, uh, we will do our best to bring you some more fun, just like we did tonight. That's right. Yep. So, uh, Kevin and Bo will hopefully be back next time. I'll be perfectly honest. I'm hoping Jess and I will be here for the next one as well. We are going to be coming in from vacation ourselves that afternoon before we stream again in two weeks. So we'll be flying in and we'll hopefully make it back in time. October has been a busy month and it's going to continue to be busy. Yeah. Yeah. So hopefully we will see y'all all in two weeks as well. Yeah. And we did see Kevin yesterday while we were in Huntsville. We went to see back to the future of the musical. And so we did see Kevin and his fiance up there and we'll be with them next weekend. We got a fun little road trip that we're all, all four of us are going to take and we'll probably do some video for it. Maybe post something here on the channel. Yeah. So why not? Yeah. But we're going to wrap it up. Nixie, thank you so much again for being with us. Oh, yeah. Awesome, man. Thank you. And we appreciate you and appreciate everybody watching and being a part of us. And we'll do this again in a couple of weeks. Happy October. It's fall. Maybe Alabama will cool off at some point in the near future. Maybe so. Maybe. Like to have some fall weather, please. Absolutely. But until then, uh, for Bo and Kevin and they're on their adventures and for Nixie, Michael Nix, thank you for being here. And for Jess, I'm Brock. We're the Bama geeks. We'll catch you next.